BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Italy still believes it can change draft European Union rules on car emissions to its advantage, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday.
The EU’s executive has proposed banning the sale of new combustion engine cars from 2035, but Italy and Germany are among a minority blocking the reform.
Italy argues that the EU should not mandate a total switch to electric cars but should also allow the sale of vehicles running on biofuels.
“The battle on biofuels is not at all lost,” Meloni told reporters in Brussels after a two-day summit with EU counterparts.
Biofuels are derived from biomass like plants.
Germany is lobbying Brussels in parallel in favour of cars running on synthetic fuels, and Meloni said Rome and Berlin’s objectives were not mutually exclusive.
“There has been a convergence between us and Germany in the attempt to say that electric is not the only option,” the Italian leader said.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini; Editing by Keith Weir)
